InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "We don't need rings or vows"

vonesper (vonesper) wrote in starlighting,
@ 2008-09-03 23:02:00

WHO: Lukas von Esper and Alex Romano
WHAT: Fateful random encounter?
WHEN: Thursday, Sept 4; mid-afternoonish
WHERE: NYU, an astronomy classroom
RATING: TBD

Today wasn't a great day for getting lost, and luckily Lukas wasn't lost. That was about all he wasn't, and things were bad enough that he'd started counting his blessings. His mother sent him out with a mission to deliver a package to his brother after school let out, and ol' Adrian von Esper, who wasn't particularly old at all, didn't charge his cellphone. Perhaps he turned it off for some godforsaken reason, but whatever the case was, Lukas couldn't contact him and had since found himself searching building to building for one Professor von Esper, retracing his brother's steps without a shred of hope of actually catching up to him. He wasn't lost, but Lukas may as well have been--and it was a truly miserable day for it. Even with the heavy fog drowning out the sun, the air was hot and humid with the heat beating down on his head like an overenthusiastic drummer high on nitrous oxide. It wasn't too pleasant. Even less pleasant was how Lukas had rapidly become aware of just how many college students didn't bother with deoderant.

Lukas had gone to Adrian's office first which was par for the course, and he would've just dumped the package there on the desk had he thought there wasn't anything important in it, but it was Mama von Esper that sent him in, so Lukas had figured it must've held something she'd rather not trust the post office with. Two classrooms and two staff lounges (all thankfully within only a few seconds walk to the next building, which left Lukas grumpy but plenty hygienic), Lukas had an itching feeling it was probably a Beanie Baby named Adrian that his mother had found amusing or something else equally worthless knowing his luck. Mind you, if Lukas' middle name was Luck, his first name would've been Bad. On the upside, one of the professors in the lounges had looked down upon him with pity, and he picked up a free can of ice-cold cherry coke from her.

He'd narrowed the trail down to being only about an hour and a half behind where Adrian was last, or that's what Mrs. Cherry Coke told him, and who was he to doubt Mrs. Cherry Coke? Now Lukas found himself walking down a clean hallway with the air-conditioning doing its best to blast any intruders into human popsicles. Rounding a corner, Lukas finally spotted a door labeled Rm337 - Astronomy. A quick glance through the window told him all he needed to know: Adrian wasn't there. Resisting the urge to bash his head into the wall, Lukas only rolled his eyes and pulled the door open to step inside. Again, Lukas counted his blessings. At least the classroom wasn't empty; there was still one poor soul left for Lukas to accost. He wasn't a bloodhound after all, a cold trail would've been the end of this, which wouldn't be all that bad, come to think of it. It'd almost be preferable if Lukas had anything better to do with his time. (As far as he was concerned, applying for college didn't count as something better to do with his time.)

Glancing around, Lukas slowed his pace to his usual jaded calm and walked up to the only remaining person in the room. "Sorry to bother you," he said, "but do you by any chance know where Adrian von Esper's gone? I was told he was here teaching a class here, but he's clearly not here anymore."

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protectinq
2008-09-05 01:32 am UTC (link)

With a tiny, neat scrawl, Alex finished the last of his notes and set down his pen beside his Astronomy notebook; he supposed he could have been out of the room a minute or two before, but it was his final course of the day, and he wanted to be certain he had finished any and all reflective thoughts before breaking his train of thought. After all, it was an inefficient use of your time and money if you failed to get the absolute most out of a course, and cutting off your thinking simply because the class officially ended wasn't necessary if he was in no particular rush today.

When, at that very moment, an unfamiliar voice pulled his attention upward to an equally unfamiliar face, Alex leaned back against the chair and closed his notebook with a soft plop.

"Don't worry about it," he said with a measured but genuine pleasantness. "Can't say I'm absolutely positive where he is, but he mentioned possibly going to print off sheets for the mathematical and general physics portion of the lab on Tuesday. There's a long gap between today and Tuesday, so it could have been a general statement aimed to be carried out any time between now and then, but it's the best I have to offer." Alex then noticed the package in the younger boy's hand, and he added, "Do you need him, I assume? We can check his office or perhaps even the library, if you'd like, since I don't think he'll be coming back here."

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vonesper
2008-09-05 06:52 pm UTC (link)

Oh, good. The perfect stranger didn't want him to shut up and leave him alone. That was always pleasant and infinitely preferable over the other option. If Lukas had been in his position and minding his own business, he probably would've been a little (or a lot) more on the icy side, and the classroom couldn't stand to get all that much icier without it being next-door to Santa. On the downside, Adrian could now be anywhere and anywhen from here to Tuesday. Lukas' only thought was that he really should have just left the package in the office and saved himself a wild goose chase. And he'd have to tell his brother to keep his phone charged and on next they met.

"Thanks," Lukas said, not unkindly and with a gracious hint of a smile. "I guess the idea of him being by a printer somewhere, sometime is a good few steps above having no ideas at all."

Lukas glanced down at the package when the man noticed it. It was a small, light thing, and it seemed more and more likely that there wasn't anything important in it, or that's what Lukas kept telling himself. He'd feel a little bad if he'd dumped something of dire importance on a desk like a pile of junk mail. "Yeah," he said, "I've been looking for him for a while now. I went to his office first, but it looks like he was in here back then. If you could point out the library to me though, I'd owe you one." Lukas gestured to the box. "It's from our mother."

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